Board considers proposed redistricting at Nov. 22 special meeting

Board considers proposed redistricting at Nov. 22 special meeting

The following options for new election districts will be discussed by the Board of Directors on November 22, 2011. Option A makes significant changes to the existing districts. It takes District 5 out of Contra Costa County and rotates the other districts to make them more compact. This option will be recommended by the redistricting consultants. Option B is a minimal change plan. It equalizes the districts by making local changes.

The BART Board of Directors conducted 10 informational public meetings to provide an opportunity for input on the redrawing of the nine BART election districts. There were 10 meetings between October 3 and October 13, 2011. The meetings were held in the cities of Richmond, Pittsburg, Oakland, Fremont, San Leandro, Lafayette, Livermore, and in San Francisco in the Mission, Chinatown, and Bayview.

At each meeting there were presentations on the Redistricting process and the population deviation from the ideal of the current districts. Participants were briefed on traditional redistricting criteria and asked about their communities of interest. They were given local district maps and the population of communities and neighborhoods. Those materials are available in the downloadable files below.

OUTREACH CONDUCTED

In order to maximize community involvement in the redistricting process, BART staff conducted extensive outreach prior to the community meetings. To accommodate a wide range of participants, the meetings were held at various times of the day, both in the evening and during the lunch hour and at a variety of locations. At least one meeting was held in each of the nine election districts.

The outreach effort included a multilingual notice in English, Spanish, Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese (.pdf) which was sent to Bay Area wide media, city and county elected officials, a database of Community Based Organizations (CBOs) and BART email distribution lists. There were also station notifications through BART Times newsletter and the BART train Destination Sign System. The Community Relations staff visited community leaders to invite them to the meetings and engaged CBOs in choosing the locations for the meetings and in publicizing the meetings to their constituents. Translation services were available upon request at each meeting.

Documentation of the outreach efforts and an audio recording of each meeting are available from the Office of the District Secretary. The meeting handouts are available below for download.

Public participation in the redistricting process is encouraged at meetings of the Board of Directors and comments by mail at BART Board of Directors, 300 Lakeside Drive, Oakland CA 94566; email at boardofdirectors@bart.gov; or by calling (510) 464-6095.

BACKGROUND ON REDISTRICTING

BART election districts are redrawn every 10 years following the U.S. Census. The primary purpose of redistricting is to insure population equality among Districts. This process is guided by traditional redistricting principles as well as the U.S. Constitution, the California Constitution, the federal Voting Rights Act, and the BART District Act.

According to the 2011 U.S. Census, the total population within BART’s jurisdiction (Alameda, Contra Costa and San Francisco Counties) is 3,364,531. There are nine BART districts and the new ideal population of each is 373,837. During the last 10 years, the total population within BART’s jurisdiction has increased by 195,240 and the ideal district population by 21,694. Six districts contain less than the ideal population while three exceed the ideal.